Chapter 9 - Your Teacher Is A Quack!
At the end of the day, although Leon did not manage to find a mortal-grade pill cauldron, he did managed to secure a business deal and the written contract was signed shortly after. He did not have to concern himself with money and resources in the short term. At least, if he abides by the contract and continue to supply the Cromwell family with Awakening Pills on his end.
There are some worries about whether the herbs he is looking for would be available or not. He is after all, in a different world and the herbs maybe not be entirely the same or exist on this planet. As long as he can find them, he would be able to grow them in his world space and promote them to spirit herbs.
"Old man, do you have the Awakening Pill recipe?" Leon asked.
"Yes. Sebastian, please fetch my pill recipes from the pill room." Dwight ordered a servant of his, whom been standing guard outside the tearoom.
"Right away, my lord." Sebastian answered.
The was no reason for Dwight to not own a copy of the Awakening Pill recipe. It was the pill he had been trying to concoct all these years.
He had apprenticed himself to an alchemist when he was young. The alchemist had given him the recipe for him to study and to practice with.
"Come back when you successfully concoct the pill." Was what his teacher had said to him. It was the final test for him before he graduates from his apprenticeship and become a full-fledged alchemist.
Dwight had practice concocting the pill, one failure after another with no sign of success in sight. It was a huge blow to him, whom had been bright and intelligent and with great expectations from his teacher.
Too ashamed and stubborn to seek his teacher's advice after his repeated failures, he continued to practice concocting the pill with an obsession.
Dwight had been able to concoct a few types of different pills under his teacher's supervision, but he was unsuccessful when left on his own.
It only took a few moments for the servant, Sebastian to return with a stack of recipes and handed it over to Dwight.
Dwight had a quick look through the recipes before pulling one out and passed it over to Leon with a nonchalant expression.
There was an unwritten rule among alchemists that their pill recipes should only be shared among themselves and their disciples.
The reason for such a rule was to prevent all the ambitious people from hoarding the resources to practice the recipe and attempting to raise their own qualified alchemists. Although the herbs required to concoct the Awakening Pills is not rare, it is not that common either.
It would be very wasteful to squander it thoughtlessly. The prices would rise as the resource become less and it would be detrimental to the alchemists, which is already a costly profession if it was to happen.
Although Leon had not entered their circle yet, the old man had acknowledged him as a qualified alchemist. There was no problem in allowing Leon to peruse the recipe.
When Leon read the recipe for the Awakening Pills, his eyes widen in disbelief and looked at the old man in awe.
'How can anyone concoct a pill with such a trashy recipe? These medicinal herbs are already clashing, giving it a 10% chance of success, if he was to concoct it. If you follow the instructions to the teeth, then it would become impossible to concoct the pill. How can this old man be so intelligent yet so stupid at the same time?' Leon thought.
Whatever the case was, he was really in awe of the old man's dedication despite following a dead recipe.
The old man was unable to understand Leon's thought this time and after being stared at by Leon in such a weird way for a long time had started to make the old man uncomfortable.
"What's wrong with you? Why are you staring at me like that?" The old man asked uncomfortably.
'Perhaps, he wasn't interested in my granddaughter because he was into men?' Dwight thought as a chill ran up his spine. He subconsciously took a step back.
The old man's weird actions snapped Leon out of his thoughts. Leon was able to understand the old man's thoughts and was quickly enraged.
"Do you think I would be into you!? You, old bag of bones! Just for your information, I am straight!" Leon roared.
"Che! I didn't say anything! You are the one who said it! Who are you calling an old bag of bones!?" Dwight roared back.
Lynne wasn't that bright and even a bit slow but having seen Leon's look at her grandpa and hearing her grandpa's following words was like a fuse that lit a light bulb in her head as she quickly understood the matter and felt disgusted.
Leon caught her dirty look at the corner of his eyes and was so angry he could spit blood. This was a major misunderstanding!
"I was just thinking how stupid you are to waste your whole life practicing a fake recipe!" Leon exploded.
"Nonsense! The recipe was handed to me personally by my teacher, how can it be fake!?" Although Dwight roared back in defense of his teacher, he had long had this doubt. How else could he keep failing without a single success!?
He knew that even his teacher only had a 10% success rate of concocting the pill like all the other alchemists. Only one batch out of every ten would succeed. But he did not even succeed once after hundreds and thousands of attempts!
"Your teacher is a quack!" Leon sneered.
Having released his outburst in frustration, Leon was able to quickly steady his mind and regain a calm look but the same could not be said for the old man.
"Y-YOU!! If you don't give me a justifiable answer, then don't think about leaving this villa in one piece after disrespecting my teacher!" Dwight said with boiling anger, while pointing his finger at Leon.
"Are you threatening me…?" Leon questioned with a dark look and deep voice. It was difficult for Leon to rein in his temper, nor was there any reason to when his good intentions were repeatedly met with doubts and criticism. Especially when there is still a burning rage hidden deep inside him, when his father was murdered.
An invisible pressure was exuded from Leon's body as his figure became towering in the eyes of the old man, making him hard to breathe.
Lynne didn't feel any pressure and only felt something was wrong as she was not the target of Leon's pressure.
This pressure did not come from his cultivation, which is currently comparable to a 2nd layer tempered body but from his soul who was once a Divine state practitioner.
The old man was breaking out in sweat as he had the illusion of his entire self was nothing more than an ant being gazed upon by a deity.
"Have mercy, great lord!" Dwight pleaded as his legs felt weak.
"Why are you bullying my grandpa!" Lynne pushed Leon over, clearly upset with the matter.
'This jerk seems to usually be well-tempered, putting on a false anger play with my grandpa. Why did he suddenly become ill-tempered so suddenly?' Lynne thought simply as she supported her grandpa up and looked at Leon.
Leon felt guilty for losing his temper and unleashing his pressure on the old man who he had a favorable impression of.
'Sigh, situations like this might continue to occur if I don't fix my personality disorder. I should find ways to release the pent-up stress and anger in my heart.' He thought.
"I'm sorry for losing myself there. The reason I believe your teacher is a quack is because if one concocts the pill according to the recipe, it would be impossible to succeed. Fire fruits and the Water Roots contain two opposing force, greatly reducing the medicinal essence when they clash.
Furthermore, the method of extracting the medicinal essence is too inefficient, wasting what little medicinal essences left. Although there are other minor problems. These were the main ones. How can one succeed in pill concoction if there's no medicinal essence left to concoct the pill with?
The reason you were also able to make an immediate breakthrough after your toxins were expelled was because your body had absorbed a portion of that medicinal essence." Leon apologized and explained his reason in detail.
His explanation was reasonable and justified. Even the slow Lynne was also able to understand even if she had no prior knowledge in alchemy.
Dwight sighed as he seems to have mentally aged a few years after hearing Leon's explanation.
Well it was all in the past now. He had already given up practice under his family's urging when his health had deteriorated to its current condition. He was now preoccupied with what exactly was Leon's identity. He wanted to ask but Leon was one step ahead.
"Somethings can't be explained at present and is better kept to yourself." Leon said.
The old man nodded, understanding Leon's intention and sighed again.
Leon will tell him eventually when the time is right.